Bushfires

Analysis and Comment (23)

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Another summer, not quite like the other summers. Steve Lacy

Floods, fires and lots of heat: summing up summer 2012-13

By Jane Rawson, The Conversation

We all know what to expect from summer in Australia. From December through March it will be hot, there will be storms and floods, and there will be bush fires. It’s been like that for as long as history…
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Natural disasters don’t just leave those affected rebuilding their lives but also struggling to find meaning behind the tragedy. Facebook CFA Victoria/AAP

Floods and fires: the struggle to rebuild, the search for meaning

By Nicholas Herriman, La Trobe University

This summer another bout of floods, fires, and cyclones has struck, culminating most recently in out-of-control fires across Victoria in which at least one home was lost. When we see the loss of property…
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Victoria’s alpine forest is burning more often, changing the landscape and reducing its ability to store carbon. AAP Image/Australian Workers Union

Ash to ashes – what could the 2013 fires mean for the future of our forests?

By Tom Fairman, University of Melbourne

In the high country of Victoria, firefighters are presently battling a large bushfire that is moving through the forests south of Harrietville and past the second highest mountain in Victoria, Mt. Feathertop…
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Australia’s disaster management policies are in need of reform. But is a permanent disaster fund the right way to go about it? AAP

It’s time to talk about disaster recovery

By Bruce Baer Arnold, University of Canberra and Ryan Roberts, University of Canberra

Disasters are a fact of life. We need to talk about them. Floods, fires, earthquakes and other misadventures will happen in spite of our best plans. Their impact will sometimes be severe simply because…
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Cows do more harm than good in national parks. Howard Russell

Fact check: does grazing reduce bush fires in national parks?

By Michael McCarthy, University of Melbourne

According to the ABC, Senator John Williams has called for cattle grazing in national parks to reduce the risk of fire: The problem in our national parks is that when we have these savage fires with these…
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We assume the trade-offs between fire prevention and impacts can be measured in terms of dollars, but it’s not that simple. AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy

Understanding the true costs of managing fire

By Thomas Duff, University of Melbourne

Fires are an inescapable part of life in Australia; they have been occurring for millennia, and regardless of our actions, they will continue. Much of the vegetation in Australia has evolved to be tolerant…
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The effects of climate change are becoming more apparent – who will take responsibility for the delay in action? AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy

Humanity’s scorched Earth program – where to now?

By Andrew Glikson

The intensity and frequency of bush fires and firestorms around the globe, including recently in Australia, is a growing worry. Under conditions where mean land temperatures have increased by ~1.5 degrees…
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Research shows that men are more likely to stay and fight bushfires than women. AAP/Tony Phillips

Fighting and dying: blokes and bushfire in Australia

By Meagan Tyler, Victoria University

“Record-breaking Heatwave”. “Australia Burns”. “Heroes of the Flames”. Headlines such as these will be familiar to anyone who has lived though a bad bushfire season in Australia. These past two weeks…
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There has been an outcry in Tasmania against legal restrictions on fuel reduction. AAP Image/Twitter Botonaine

Does fuel reduction burning help prevent damage from fires?

By Jamie Kirkpatrick, University of Tasmania

As the fires that started in Tasmania in early January continue to burn, a rising flow of letters to the editor, radio raves and internet utterances are questioning whether the state and local governments…
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In many cases, first-hand accounts from citizens can be as valuable as reports from official sources. AAP Image/Tony McDonough.

Spread the word: the value of local information in disaster response

By Marta Poblet, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

As dozens of bushfires continue to burn across the country (not least in New South Wales) many Australians find themselves unable to return home while many others have no home to return to. While we…
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A handout aerial image released by the New South Wales Rural Fire Service on 14 January 2013 shows the partly destroyed Siding Spring Observatory in the Warrumbungle National Park near Coonabarabran in New South Wales. EPA/NSW Rural Fire Service

Smoke damage to four buildings housing telescopes at observatory

By Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation

Four buildings containing telescopes at Australia’s largest astronomical observatory have suffered smoke damage in a bushfire, the Australian National University said today. Access to the Siding Spring…
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The way disaster relief is offered to small businesses and primary producers following natural disasters is cumbersome and inefficient and needs a national approach.

We need a national approach to small business disaster relief

By Bruce Baer Arnold, University of Canberra and Ryan Roberts, University of Canberra

When the embers have cooled or the floods have passed, who’s looking after the sustainability of small business in regional Australia? This year’s extreme heat and dry weather have again ensured Australia…
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Bushfire affected property at Sommers Bay in Tasmania, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013. Residents of the worst-hit town Dunalley in the Tasmanian bushfires returned on Friday to see the full extent of the devastation. AAP/David Beniuk

Natural disasters have unexpected impacts on mental health

By Jan Golembiewski

Radical circumstances (bushfires and natural disasters) flush out the mental illness in society. Whenever there’s a disaster, there’s a rush on hospital admissions for psychiatric problems. But on the…
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An increasing trend towards more frequent and severe bushfires has created uncertainty over insurance coverage. AAP

Bushfire losses reignite debate about insurance reform

By Rachel Anne Carter, La Trobe University

The Australian summer has become synonymous with bushfire risk. Tasmania, New South Wales and Victoria have witnessed devastating bushfires generating millions of dollars of damage. Many individuals have…
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The rush to rebuild is understandable, but our attitude to bushfires will bring us more trouble in the long run. AAP Image/Rob Blakers

Adapting to bushfires means accepting their place in Australia

By Stewart Williams, University of Tasmania

It’s just a week into the new year and here in Tasmania we are already licking our wounds after disastrous fires in the state’s south. Mainlanders are facing similar events as extreme weather conditions…
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It will take social change to prevent people deliberately lighting bushfires. AAP Image/NSW Rural Fire Service, Barry Ballard

Bushfire arson: prevention is the cure

By Janet Stanley, Monash University and Paul Read, Monash University

At this time of year, each year – the bushfire season – the complex nature of human behaviour hits home. Bushfires are a terrible event. The environmental destruction, the loss of property and sometimes…
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A bushfire smoke plume visible from Park Beach in Forcett, south-east of Hobart. AAP

Smoke from bushfires poses a health hazard for all of us

By Mick Meyer, CSIRO

The bushfires currently raging across south-eastern Australia have, once again, focused national attention on the risks they pose for the community. The immediate concerns, naturally, are the direct impacts…
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Environmental heat disturbs the delicate balance between sleep and body temperature. Steven Mileham

Too hot to sleep? Here’s why

By Ron Grunstein

Bushfires are quite appropriately dominating our nation’s concerns during the current Australian heatwave. But for many, the struggle to sleep through soaring temperatures is a personal inferno that dominates…
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Researchers and firefighters have long speculated that fire tornadoes might exist. Now we know they do. Dig/AAP

Turn and burn: the strange world of fire tornadoes

By Rick McRae, ACT Emergency Services Agency and Jason Sharples

We’ve all seen footage of out-of-control bushfires sweeping the Australian landscape, burning out hectares of native forest in their wake. But you might not have heard of a fire tornado, let alone seen…
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The role of powerlines in bushfires is raising some pressing issues of climate change adaptation. Paul Hocksenar

Hot issue – bushfires, powerlines and climate change

By David Bowman, University of Tasmania

We have unwittingly hardwired a bushfire ignition source throughout our flammable landscapes – powerlines. Powerlines can fail under any conditions but the risk increases on days of high bushfire risk…
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We all want to know how bad the next fire season will be, but working it out isn’t easy. AFP/Torsten Blackwood

‘The worst fire season ever’ … until next year

By Ross Bradstock

Bushfires are part of the Australian landscape and the psyche of its human inhabitants. This is particularly true as months of hot, dry weather approach. Recent warnings have predicted a dire summer ahead…

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